Toy



Feb. 3, 1959 J. F. IWEST TOY Filed March 5, 1956 INVENTOR. @JOHN if. we 5T United, tates arent 2,871,617 TOY John F. West, Kansas City, Mo.

Application March 5, 1956, Serial No. 569,529

1 Claim. (Cl. 46-1) This invention relates to the eld of toys, and more particularly, to a pneumatic-hydraulic system for use in a toy to provide an unusual and entertaining display as a part of the operation of tne toy.

It is the primary object of the invention to provide in a toy such a pneumatic-hydraulic system which includes an elongated, transparent tube through which alternate liquid bubbles and gaseous pockets may be circulated.

It is another important object of the invention to provide pump means coupled with said tube of the system for intermittently or continuously circulating the liquid bubbles and gasous pockets around a closed pneumatichydraulic system including said tube and said pump means.

It is another important object of the invention to provide such a system adapted for employment as a part, for instance, of a toy space gun or the like having a trigger mechanism operably coupled with a pump device which is, in turn, connected with the opposite extremities of the transparent tube through which the bubbles and pockets advance, such tube being coiled or otherwise disposed upon an exposed portion of the gun to give a unique, visible indication of the operation of the trigger mechanism to simulate ring of the space gun.

Still other important objects of the invention will be made clear or become apparent as the following specilication progresses.

ln the accompanying drawing:

Fig. 1 is a side elevational view of a space gun having a pneumatic-hydraulic system as contemplated by the invention, installed thereon, parts being broken away for clarity of illustration;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged, fragmentary, side elevational view of the pumping device and trigger mechanism, parts being broken away and shown in section for clarity of illustration; and

Fig. 3 is a cross sectional view taken on line III-III of Fig. l.

Referring now to the drawing, the numeral generally indicates a space gun or the like having a barrel portion 12, a main body portion 14 and a pistol grip portion 16. Gun 10 is preferably hollow and may be formed, for instance, by the molding of two hollow, complemental halves, which are then secured together after the parts to be housed internally of body portion 14 are in place.

The numeral 20 generally designates an elongated, transparent tube having a coil portion 22 disposed upon barrel 12 of gun 10, an inlet or feed portion 24 and an outlet or exhaust portion 26.

Gun 10 is provided with a trigger mechanism generally designated 30, which includes a plate-like trigger member 32 provided with upper, oppositely extending lateral anges 34 and lower oppositely extending lateral flanges 36. Body portion 14 of gun 10 is provided with an opening 38 through which plate 32 extends to expose a forwardmost surface 40 thereof for engagement by an operators trigger finger. Plate 32 is reciprocably mounted within housing 14 by vertically spaced projections 4Z on each side of the body 14 internally thereof and adjacent the opening 38, the flanges 34 and 36 each acting as a rail between a corresponding pair of the protuberances 42. A coil spring 44 has one end thereof attached to the gun 10 internally of the body 14 as at 46 and has the opposite end thereof attached to the plate 32 as at 48. Spring 44 thus yieldably biases plate 32 forwardly toward a position where a pair of laterally extending upright flanges 50 on plate 32 are engaged against a pair of opposed stop members 52 provided internally of body 14 adjacent to but rearwardly of the opening 38. The engagement of anges 50 with stops 52 obviously delines the forwardmost position to which the plate 32 may be biased by the spring 44.

` A pump generally designated v60 is rigidly mounted within the interior of body 14 with the axis of its cylindrical chamber 62 in alignment with a rod 64 attached to trigger plate 32 and extending rearwardly therefrom. Rod 64 enters chamber 62 through an opening 66 in pump 60 and is connected with a piston 68. Piston 68 is provided with valve apparatus 70 of any suitable nature adapted to open when the piston 68 is moved forwardly and to close when the piston 68 is moved rearwardly. As illustrated, the apparatus 70 may simply consist of a swingably mounted valve member 72 adapted to seat upon the piston 68 for closing a valve aperture 74. Preferably, the valve apparatus 70 is disposed below the center of piston 68 for reasons which will hereinafter be made apparent.

The cylindrical side wall 76 of pump 60 is provided with an inlet opening 78 with which is associated valve apparatus 80 adapted to open as the pistonl 68 moves rearwardly and to close as the piston 68 moves forwardly. Similarly, the rear end wall 82 is provided with an outlet opening 84 having valve apparatus 86 associated therewith which is adapted to open as the piston 68 moves rearwardly and to close as the piston 68 moves forwardly. The feed portion 24 of tube 20 is coupled with the outlet opening 84 of pump 60 and the exhaust portion 26 of tube 20 is coupled with the inlet opening 78 of valve 60.

A quantity of colored liquid adapted to form liquid bubbles 88 is provided within coil 20 and pump 60, but is present in insufficient quantity to till the system comprised of coil 20 and pump 60, the remainder of the system being filled with air or other suitable gas.

In operation, the exertion of rearward pressure on portion 48 of plate 32 will reciprocate rod 64 and piston 68 rearwardly. This will close valve 70 and open valves 80 and 86. As piston 68 moves rearwardly within chamber 62 liquid or/and gaseous material from the exhaust portion 26 of coil 20 will be pulled into that part of chamber 62 forwardly of piston 68. It may be noted that the internal diameter of coil 20 is preferably of relatively small size so as to provide capillary action for retaining the liquid bubbles 88 in bubble form and for preventing the flow thereof except when the pump 60 is operated. Accordingly, the rearward movement of piston 68 will bring only a predetermined quantity of liquid into the chamber 62 forwardly of the piston 68.

Upon release of the pressure from the surface 48 of trigger plate 32, spring 44 will draw plate 32 and accordingly rod 64 and piston 68 forwardly. As piston 68 moves forwardly valve 80 will close and valve 70 will open thus permitting a quantity of liquid from that part of chamber 62 forwardly of piston 68 to ilow into that part of chamber 62 rearwardly of piston 68. After sufcient liquid has flowed through opening 74 to bring the level of same in the part of chamber 62 forwardly of piston 68 below the level of the lowermost extremity of opening 74, air or other gaseous material will flow through opening 74 into that part of chamber 62 rearwardly of garner? 'piston 68. Accordingly, the part of chamber 62. rearwardly of piston 68 will normally contain a given quantity of the liquid 8S and a given quantity of the gas used in the systernrwhen the piston 68 at theiorvvardniost end of its path of travel. lt will observed that valye `85 closes during forward movement of the piston o8 to prevent retrogressive movement vof liquid bubbles 88 or gas into die chamber :52 from the 'feedliiie 2,4.

When rearward'pressure is nextapplied to surface di) of trigger plate 32th rearwardly reciprocate rod 15d and piston 6,8,vvvalve` '78 will close and valve and 86 will open. The' procedure for lling that portion of chamber 62 forwardly of piston 68 with 'air and` liquid will occur as just described. v However, rearward movement of piston 68 will also first force a quantity of' air cut outlet opening 84 into the feed portion 24 'of coil 2? until the level of liquid Within that part of chamber 62, rearwardly of piston 68 has Vrisen above the outlet opening 3d, whereupon further rearwardV movement of piston ofi will then force a quantity" of the liquid out opening 8d until the level of liquid falls below the latter thereby presenting a liquid bubble 88 inthe feed line 24.

As the trigger 32 is successively operated alternate liquid stretches 90 and intervening air bubbles 88 will be moved into the feed line 2li and advanced through the entirety of the coil 2b, being ultimately returned to the pump 50 through the exhaust portion 26 of coil 120 and inlet opening 7S of pump 69. it will be apparent that by varying the manner oi operating the trigger mechanism 30 and, accordingly, the pump 6i?, dierent conditions of spacing and travel of the bubbles 88 within the coil 2t) may be produced.

It should be understood that the space gun described above is illustrative only and that the pneumatic-hydraulic system of tbe invention could conceivably be used in many other types of toys. It will also be appreciated that the exact form of the pump 68 may be varied. Similarly, it should lbe pointed out that trigger mechanism 30 can, besides being coupled with pump ob, also be operably coupled with any suitable noise-making device (not shown), sothat operation of the gun may be characterized by an audible eiect, as well as the visual one with which this invention is principally concerned.

It will also be appreciated that, even in a space gun, many details of construction could be varied from those described for purposes of illustration without departing from the true spirit and intention of the invention. Accordingly, it should be understood that the invention is to be deemed limited only by the scope of the appended claim.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed as new and desired to be secured by Letters Patent is:

in a toy weapon, a gun-like body having an elongated barrel portion and a rear portion provided internally thereof with a cylinder having a pair of horizontally opposed ends, an inlet opening therein adjacent one end thereof and an outlet opening in the other end thereof; a

tube externally coupled between said openings and pro-A vided With a transparent, exposed portion to be displayed disposed along the exterior of the barrel portion; a piston reciprocably mounted in the cylinder between said openings and provided with an aperture therethrough, the aperture being disposed at a level'below the outlet open ing; a check valve for each of said openings respectively, said valves each being open when the piston moves in the direction of the outlet opening and closed when the piston moves in the direction of the inlet opening; a third check valve for said aperture, said third valve being open when the piston moves in the direction of the inlet opening and closed when the piston moves in the direction of the outlet opening; a quantity of liquid material partially lling the tube and cylinder; a quantity of gaseous material filling the remainder of the lLube and cylinder; a trigger assembly on the body; and means operably coupling the trigger assembly'and the piston for reciprocating the piston alternately in said directions.

References Cited inthe le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 101,960 Wright Apr. 12, 1870 127,243 Johnson May 28, 1872 1,557,436 Dix Oct. v13, 1925 2,589,757 Williams Mar. 18, 1952 

